Egyptian authorities allegedly tortured to death the brother of a prominent spokesman for Palestinian resistance group Hamas, who had been held in an Alexandria prison for the last six months, according to Hamas statements.
“Youssef Abu Zuhri, 38, brother of Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, was martyred in an Egyptian prison cell as a result of torture,” Fawzi Barhoum, another main spokesman for the group, said.
“My brother was brutally tortured in an Egyptian prison cell during the last couple of weeks,” Abu Zuhri told Al-Masry Al-Youm English Edition via telephone from Gaza.
Abu Zuhri added that his brother had suffered a massive hemorrhage before being transferred by prison authorities to the Alexandria University hospital for treatment.
“They only moved him to the hospital after his condition deteriorated seriously,” said Abu Zuhri. “But they refused to keep him at the hospital even though the bleeding never stopped.”
He went on to say that his brother had died in his prison cell late Monday night, adding that his family had not been allowed access to the slain man.
Spokesmen for the Egyptian Interior Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry were not available for comment.
According to a number of prominent Egyptian bloggers, Egyptian satellite company NileSat abruptly pulled the plug on the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television channel while it was broadcasting a press conference devoted to the issue.
Abu Zuhri said that the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo had informed his family of his brother’s death, although an embassy official subsequently denied the report. “We didn’t know about the incident so we didn’t inform anybody,” the official told Al-Masry Al-Youm English Edition on condition of anonymity.
Egyptian authorities arrested Youssef Abu Zuhri on April 28 after he covertly entered Egypt through a smuggling tunnel running underneath the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. At the time, Egyptian state media reported that State Security investigators had interrogated Abu Zurhi for a possible link to Shiite Lebanese resistance faction Hezbollah.
In April, police authorities announced the arrest of19 Egyptians– along with five Palestinians and two Lebanesenationals –on charges of belonging to a secret “Hizbullah cell” operating in Egypt.Amid much fanfare in the state press, the men were accused of“conspiracy to murder, spying for a foreign organization with intent to conduct terrorist attacks and weapons possession.”
It remains unclear whether Youssef Abu Zuhri was himself a member of Hamas.The Gaza Strip is home, however, to a number of other militant Islamist groups, some of which are said to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Egyptian authorities have blamed Gaza-based extremists for a string of suicide attacks on tourist sites in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula between 2004 and 2006. Hamas, which swept 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections and has governed the strip since 2007, has consistently denied involvement in the Sinai attacks, which killed over 130 people.
The death of Abu Zuhri could adversely affect ongoing Egyptian mediation efforts between Hamas and rival Palestinian faction Fatah.
Asked if his brother’s death would impact an Egypt-proposed reconciliation agreement — expected to be tabled later this month — Sami Abu Zuhri declined to comment.
Hamas has long asked Egyptian authorities to release its members currently languishing in Egyptian jails.
On Tuesday, Hamas renewed calls for Egypt to free its detained members, especially Ayman Noufal, leader of the group’s military wing, the Ezz Eddin al-Qassam Brigades.
According to the website of the Hamas-affiliated Palestine Information Center, Palestinians treated in Egyptian hospitals during Israel’s January assault on the Gaza Strip charged that they had been interrogated and bullied by Egyptian security personnel seeking the whereabouts of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas in 2006.
According to international and local rights groups, the use of torture inside Egypt’s prisons and detention centers is “systematic.” In August, the Cairo-based Egyptian Organization for Human Rights asserted that at least 117 people had been tortured to death inside Egyptian prisons since 2000.
